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Pulled pork for 30 - half portions

qQueen
qQueen Posts: 5
edited November -0001 in EggHead Forum
Hi all -

Promised my friend I would do pulled pork for her party next weekend. She expects about 30 people and wants to serve the pork on mini-buns. (There will be lots of other appetizers). How many butts should I do?
Also, she wants the pork already sauced in a crockpot - anyone have a crowd-pleasing sauce to recommend?
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Comments

  • Gator
    Gator Posts: 27
    I used Celtic Spirit's method with success. You'll just figure out how much finished product you want per person and go from there.

    So, for 30 people with a 1/4 pound serving each you'll need 30*16/4 = 120 oz or 7.5 lbs. You can estimate about 40% loss on your butt during cooking so you take 7.5/.4 = 18.75 lbs of raw meat to feed 30 people 1/4lb each.

    http://www.celticspiritbbq.com/methods/pulledpork.html
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  • Celtic Wolf
    Celtic Wolf Posts: 9,773
    Your math is a wee bit off. She wants approx. 13 pounds of raw product, but 18 is good :)

    Leftovers!!!!
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  • Celtic Wolf
    Celtic Wolf Posts: 9,773
    What time is the party? Why in a crockpot?

    Depending on the time of the party and when you get the butts finished you could easily cook the butt, foil them store them in a dry cooler and pull and sauce them at the party. Give you a big "OHH WOW" factor.
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  • Gator
    Gator Posts: 27
    Celtic, your site is down, by the way.

    Queen, I wanted to add to Celtic's comment. I made a mistake on my first pulled pork and it was done 7 hours early. I went ahead and pulled it and pulled it right off the grill. I then reheated it in a large pot with some sauce right before the party. The results were great.

    As far as a sauce goes, I'd go to Naked Whiz's site and check out Elder Ward's vinegar-based sauce. I'm a Carolina boy and grew up on vinegar bbq, and loved that sauce. I modified it a tad, but I'm sure the original recipe would be very similar.

    If you want katsup on your bbq, I'm of no help.
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  • Celtic Wolf
    Celtic Wolf Posts: 9,773
    Was down.. I fixeded it.. :)
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  • qQueen
    qQueen Posts: 5
    Yes, I agree...I would much prefer to do it your way, with the WOW-factor and all. Unfortunately, this is an "after-party" to occur after a local festival (party will start around 9 pm). My friend wants to be able to get her food ready ahead as much as possible (hence the crockpot), attend the festival and then arrive back at her house (with 30 guests) with all the food ready to go without much fuss. So, I am trying to accomodate her, I guess.
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  • qQueen
    qQueen Posts: 5
    Thanks Gator and Celtic Wolf - big help on the quantity!
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  • Celtic Wolf
    Celtic Wolf Posts: 9,773
    That is cool, but 8 pounds is a big crock pot. :)
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  • qQueen
    qQueen Posts: 5
    Ahhh yes, I have made Elder Ward's vinegar sauce before - delightful. Thanks for reminding me of it!
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  • Hotwingking
    Hotwingking Posts: 279
    I did 18 pounds for thirty peeps and had no leftovers.
    Instead of a crock pot you could use a foil pan or two,
    just keep the Butts wrapped in foil in an ice chest until you absolutely need to pull it, then sauce it up.
    It seemed to work good for me. :)
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
    .

    Take the number of people and divide by 2.4.

    Son-in-law just fed 40 people yesterday. He did an extra 3 pounds an found out the folks will eat whatever is there. Some people had 4 servings.


    - - Edit - -
    If one wants to match CW's formula of 1/4 pound per person and a 40% cook shrink simply divide the number of people eating by 1.6

    GG
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
    .

    Not too sure how many people like story problems, however, if you want to match the 40% shrinkage loss due to cooking and serving finished cooked serving of 4 oz (1/4 # per person), rather than running all the above math ...

    simply divide the number of people feeding by 1.6.

    30 People/1.6 = 12-1/2 pounds of raw butt.

    Same results.

    GG
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